Team games ice breaker

It can also help with name-learning for groups getting to know each other. Have new team mates tell a joke at their first all-hands meeting. This is a great way to encourage people to be vulnerable and also ensures the meetings start on a cheery note. The activity involves participants standing in a circle and throwing imaginary ball s to each other in increasing pace.

When throwing the first ball, the person starting should make a special sound that has to be repeated by the catcher upon receiving the ball. Once the ball is being thrown around at a fairly brisk pace, you can introduce another imaginary ball and start throwing it. When the group gets proficient at it, you can have three or four balls in play. Another classic among ice breakers for meetings, Sound Ball deserves your attention.

Sound Ball energiser ice breaker thiagi team outdoor. This a simple icebreaker activity energising participants, also suitable for debriefing learning points towards spontaneity and teamwork. This is a seemingly contradictory ice breaker that actually results in lots of smiles.

Instruct everyone to keep a straight face and do not smile under ANY circumstance in the first five minutes of the meeting. People turn into children with an instruction like this, and immediately start looking at others, seeing how they cope. The anticipation makes everyone giggly, so after a while they cannot suppress their laughter anymore. We love ice breaker ideas that encourage people to try new things and are surprising too. Some of the best ice breaker games are those that encourage laughter, and the no smiling game is great for that!

We hope you have found some useful tips for practical and fun ice breaker games and ice breaker ideas in the list above. Remember that some ice breakers for meetings can scale to the size of your group while others work best with lots of people. Find the best team icebreakers for your specific group and purpose and you can help ensure they are successful! What are your favourite ice breaker activities?

Have you tried any of the methods above? How did you find them? Let us know about your experiences in the comments. I forgot that I had to present a game or what-ever for a Red Hat meeting tomorrow. Thanks for this list! Great list! Here are some of the icebreakers I use: 1- Batikha Watermelon in Arabic The group sits or stands in a circular form. One person starts by placing their palms on their mouth as if they are holding a ball watermolon and passing it to the person on their side if they pass it to the person on their right, they must use their left hand pointing to the right direction , the next person carries on with this rhythm.

At any point anyone could decide to reverse the path of the ball by changing their hand and the pointing to the other person. This is when it gets tricky because if anyone else -other than the person pointed to takes an action by raising their hands they get out of the circle.

Additional if someone points the ball upwards, it means the next person will be skipped and the following person should complete the cycle.

This games involves a person usually the trainer asking each one individually a series of questions. The participant will probably say no and lose. Thank you, Nahla, great to see your favourite ice breaker activities, too — thanks for sharing!

These are all so good! Thanks so much! Excellent list and love the card format of the activity. For Icebreaker questions I use icebreakrs. This will help each other in the team professionally and personally , we can share ideas and solve problems. Thank you for this great collection of wonderful and fun icebreakers and activities.

Objectives: To get participants to share their opinions, encourage listening, and promote better discussion in the group. Ask participants of the training event to imagine themselves in each of the cities above. And, what they would like to do there? What would they work at? Would their life be different? If so, in what ways? Once each person has described who they would like to get the group in a circle to discuss the exercise.

Discussion Questions: Did anyone feel uncomfortable doing this exercise? If so, why? Of all the places presented does anyone want to change? If so why or why not? Your email address will not be published. Try it for Free. Are you facilitating workshops, meetings, or training sessions regularly? Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or the MS Office toolkit combined with email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing your workshop preparations and delivery?

Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when…. Working in a great team can make all the difference when it comes to job satisfaction and organizational success. Team building activities can prove to be the missing link that….

Remote working is often touted as the future of work. Studies show that remote workers are happier and more productive than their office working counterparts and the benefits for companies moving to distributed workforces are great too! As teams and organizations begin to transition to working online, the need for well-designed and effectively facilitated remote….

Delivery Matters. Diversity Bingo ice breaker get-to-know opening teampedia action This game helps participants to get information on each other in a fun, competitive way. Icebreaker: The Group Map get-to-know ice breaker remote-friendly Ask people to place themselves on an imaginary map laid out in the room representing the country according to where they grew up. Common and Unique get-to-know teambuilding ice breaker Create groups of people, and let them discover what they have in common, along with interesting characteristics that are unique to a person in the group.

Coat of Arms teambuilding opening ice breaker team get-to-know thiagi Coat of Arms exercise provides a way for participants to introduce themselves and their colleagues, particularly for groups who think they already know each other very well. Almost invariably participants discover something about their colleagues of which they previously had no idea. Because this activity forces people to use drawings rather than words, it is particularly useful as a dual-purpose introductory exercise in training sessions that deal with such topics as innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.

Line-Up hyperisland energiser In the short group challenge, participants must organize themselves in a line according to a certain criteria like height without speaking. Quotes ice breaker energiser online warm up remote-friendly For participants to get acquainted with each other in a meaningful way. Stand up if ice breaker sharing opening energiser online remote-friendly short, fun, energizing team activity.

Get started for free! Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity team icebreaker get-to-know teambuilding The Four Quadrants is a tried and true team building activity to break the ice with a group or team. BackBack Drawing communication collaboration trust ice breaker teampedia action This is a communication exercise when participants in pairs have to use only verbal communication to help their pair to draw a specific picture.

There are several variations of the exercise detailed in the instructions. Low-tech Social Network gamestorming ice breaker opening The object of this game is to introduce event participants to each other by co-creating a mural-sized, visual network of their connections.

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing teamwork team leadership collaboration In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow.

Egg drop teampedia collaboration teamwork ice breaker team This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker for people who have just met but it can be framed as a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well. Helium Stick teampedia team teamwork ice breaker energiser A great and simple activity for fostering teamwork and problem solving with no setup beforehand.

Blind Square — Rope game teamwork communication teambuilding team energiser thiagi outdoor This is an activity that I use in almost every teambuilding session I run—because it delivers results every time. I can take no credit for its invention since it has existed from long before my time, in various forms and with a variety of names such as Blind Polygon.

The activity can be frontloaded to focus on particular issues by changing a few parameters or altering the instructions. Portrait Gallery hyperisland team ice breaker The Portrait Gallery is an energetic and fun icebreaker game that gets participants interacting by having the group collaboratively draw portraits of each member.

It can be played with adults of all levels as well as kids and it always works! One Word Method product development idea generation creativity ice breaker online warm up Creating a sentence relating to a specific topic or problem with each person contributing one word at a time.

Crazy Handshake ice breaker get-to-know opening teampedia team This activity helps people ease in a group and brings out their creativity without a lot of effort. Bang hyperisland energiser Bang is a group game, played in a circle, where participants must react quickly or face elimination.

Sound Ball energiser ice breaker thiagi team outdoor This a simple icebreaker activity energising participants, also suitable for debriefing learning points towards spontaneity and teamwork. Method: This is a very simple exercise that participants can also have some fun with. Great ideas and will use this week at our yearly NHS Nurse away day. In the lead up to this getting-to-know-you game, collect a few weird items that would be difficult to identify just from touch mind puzzles, strange toys, or obscure tools are always a winner.

Divide everyone into teams of two. Give one person on each team a piece of paper and a pen, and sit them where they can hear — but not see — their partner. Ask the second teammate to close her eyes, then place an object in her hands. She must describe the object while their partner attempts to draw it. This is such a hard challenge, but a great way to highlight potential communication problems between people.

Brand new teams usually need a bit of help getting comfortable with each other. Use these getting-to-know you games to loosen things up and begin building a sense of camaraderie.

As a new hire, it can be stressful getting up in front of the whole team to introduce yourself. Take the pressure off your new team member and make a video about them instead. Film an interview where you ask them a bit about themselves, their new role, and their work history. No one remembers names the first time they hear them, especially in a high-pressure situation. If you have a new team or a workshop with new people, do them all a favor and start with a name game.

The game starts with one person saying their name. The next person continues the chain, saying the first two names and adding their own.

And so on. If someone forgets a name in the chain, start again but start with another person so everyone gets a turn. The game finishes when you make it around to everyone and end with a full list of names.

Speed dating is the quickest and easiest way to help big groups of people get to know each other. Set up a long table with pairs of chairs facing each other all the way down.

The group on one side of the table should be stationary, the group on the other side should move one chair to the right at the sound of the buzzer. Give each round a minute and start them off with a few easy questions. Cat or dog person? Favorite dessert?

Best travel experience? This icebreaker is so much fun but does require a fair bit of prep work from the moderator. To prepare, find an online template for bingo and populate it with facts you know about individual team members. If people start racing to get through, you can add extra rules to make it trickier.

Try things like not allowing them to ask the question directly. Sometimes it pays to have fun, especially at work. Use these icebreaker ideas to shake things up and let your team enjoy themselves.

In the easy version, you can play with no props and no required reading. Set up a game of Werewolf and see how your team interacts to uncertain alliances. If you really want to put on a show, find a more elaborate murder mystery structure. There are plenty of free versions online.

Level up with video: Create a video that guides your team through the mystery or sets the mood with atmospheric music and backgrounds. It also helps managers understand how staff perceive themselves and their role in the office.

Provide drawing tools and print off a coat of arms template for people to fill in. Coats of arms were created for important families in medieval England and worn by knights so they, and their heroic deeds, could be distinguished on the battlefield. Being put on the spot encourages us to ask random questions. The shared urgency creates an element of fun for employees to fit as much as they can within the time frame. These are our top 5 icebreaker activities to play remotely.

These games enable creative thinking to build authentic connections from a distance. Otherwise, turn your video off. Why play it: A small group can get to know each other well in a fun environment. This icebreaker activity builds connection and encourages laughter to break the ice.

How to play it: First, log in to a video call. In the chat, send team members a link to a shared Pictionary board, such as Skribbl. Enter what you think the participant is drawing to the text box on the site until you guess correctly. Why play it: Pictionary invokes healthy competition. How they think things through will determine how they attempt to draw. How to play it: Using a shared Miro board paste a photo of a world map.

Teammates have a timer set to pick a coloured post-it in Miro and paste it on the map. Once the timer is done, let each teammate talk about why they chose a specific country.

Why play it: Remote teams who may be geographically dispersed have varying lived experiences. This fun and easy icebreaker allows your team to share personal details in a safe environment while inspiring others. How to play it: Log in to a video call, take turns showing your team your home office set up.

Mention a few key items that enable you to feel productive while working remotely. You can also share sentimental trinkets that inspire you throughout the day.

Why play it: In a traditional office space, workers have their own style and way of working. Learning about your colleagues day to day environment helps you get to know them better and learn about any potential constraints they might face.

At HubSpot, we conduct a scavenger hunt for new hires on the first day of their training. It's fun and encourages collaboration, but additionally, it can help employees learn their way around the office. Fortunately, you can conduct a scavenger hunt for your team even if they've worked at your office for years. Simply split up your team into groups, and give each group a shortlist of items to find -- if you work in a smaller space, maybe you can hide some funny items around the office ahead of time.

A scavenger hunt is also an exceptional opportunity for cross-department interaction. Consider reaching out to managers from other departments and creating groups of employees who don't often get to work together.

This game is simple and meant to energize your team. Get your colleagues in a circle and ask one volunteer to sit or stand in the middle. Tell the volunteer that they can not laugh or smile, regardless of what happens.

Then have each other colleagues take turns telling the volunteer a work-appropriate joke. The goal of the volunteer is to hear a joke from every colleague around the circle, while the goal of the other team members is to make the volunteer laugh. This icebreaker can be helpful in new-employee or management training to lighten the pressure of starting a new job.

It can also be helpful as a way of lightening the mood on teams that regularly deal with stressful projects or situations. Aside from being a fun team activity, this might be a great energizer for sales employees or others that regularly pitch, market, and sell products. Ask your team to find four to seven items around the office and bring them to one room. These items could be something they use daily, like a pen or a chair. However, you should encourage them to find items that are more odd or unique.

This will make the game more challenging. Line the items up and split the group into sub-teams. Task each team with picking an item they would use to survive if stranded on a desert island. Tell team members that they cannot pick more than one and must assume it is the only item they will have on that island. Allow the teams time to deliberate and then ask them to present the item they chose and why.

For this icebreaker, all you have to do is answer the question about your favorite things. You'll ask your team to choose their favorite movie, song, T. The question can change every week.

This icebreaker helps your team get to know each other even when they work remotely and can spark conversation on what everyone likes or dislikes. If you're looking for a remote icebreaker that's more of a game, and less discussion-based, you can host a trivia game. Kahoot is a trivia platform you can use for free hosts up to 10 people. To get started, all you'll need to do is sign up for a free Kahoot account. Then, you can choose a featured trivia game to play.

To run this remotely, you'll want to share your screen with your team. Everyone will need to have a separate device to use so they can enter the game and submit their answers.

This is one of my favorite icebreakers because it's a fun way to get to know your team. For this game, have everyone bring in an embarrassing photo and tell the story behind it.

Have your team members share their screen or send a file to the team leader to share with everyone. To make this more interesting, you can have people guess whose photo it is before your team member shares their story. Doing this icebreaker is a great way to build connections remotely.